Category Archives: AHA Show

Arcilesi|Homberg Fine Art is pleased to present “I’m The Map,” a group show opening Friday, July 21st from 6 – 9pm at 15 Orchard Street, New York, NY. The show is a compilation of paintings, collage, sculpture, photography, and mixed media from 18 artists. The inner map or “way finding,” as it has been connoted, is the way in which people and animals orient themselves in their own physical space navigating from place to place. ”Way finding” is as innate as one’s moral and directional compass. It is an instinct that is learned, but becomes as natural as knowing right from wrong. The works on view respond to the artists’ observation and interpretation of the global and the human landscape, sometimes examining the entanglement of memory, recalling landmarks and visual configurations. Thus, we felt it deeming and appropriate to bring to the walls of this exhibit the artists whom have gallantly shared their personal maps through their work.

Arlene Rush was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011. During her visits to the doctor, Arlene asked the technicians for a handful of colorful stickers that were used to mark her nipples prior to radiology imaging. She wondered if the stickers were purposefully bright and cheery, as to distract from these kinds of procedures and it’s possibilities of having a dire outcome. Rush then began to paste the dots on her breasts as the techs had done at the radiology center. But instead of simply marking the nipple, the exercise was more akin to sculpting. The stickers become a means to map the artist’s own body. Her photograph, Days After, evocatively diagrams of this journey (shown left: Days After II, Arlene Rush).

Jose Arenas’s work (shown right: Paseo, Jose Arenas) explores dual identities, personal ritual, migration, and the displaced feeling that occurs from growing up in two countries. Born in San Jose, California, Arenas spent much of his childhood traveling between Northern California and Guadalajara, Mexico. His experiences navigating two worlds along with its complex process of integration and assimilation has informed his work in a variety of ways. By combining decorative patterns, culturally assigned symbols, and familiar abstract forms, he creates an emotionally resonant narrative that remains open to interpretation.

Jeffrey Allen Price creates assemblages of recycled materials out of sponges for his maps (Manhattan Effigy, shown left). “The cartographic iconography is derived from geographical locations that I am familiar with, and are immediately recognizable locations.”- Jeffrey Allen Price. Price directly comments on personal and global consumption by using the materials that surround us in our daily lives.

Nola Romano uses directional signs, maps and iconic images in her work Turn, Rotate, Float (shown right) that relate to her neighborhoods and the people who surround her. Incorporating maps in a personally, Romano offers solace and encouragement in her quirky and whimsical characters. Providing an outlet for life’s day to day obstacles, “Her characters represent a personal iconography comprised of multiple identities…” –Mary Tang; her twin daughters, her husband, and people of her past. Representing one’s interpersonal documentation of the faces and situations that we maybe timid to show the world Romano is ¬“mapping” a world full of mishaps and dilemmas. Instinctively, we all crave structure. People are innately drawn to habits, places and people that may conjure a sense of control over situations that can otherwise leave them feeling adrift from where they envision themselves to be. At the same time people also break their automaticity by changing their physical mind states, feeling drawn to the unknown maps and invisible grids that lie within.